Can The Lost Be Found?

Daughter #1 and I just returned from a trip to Wisconsin to visit kin.  Driving to Wisconsin, our first day was clear and sunny.  In the afternoon, while talking with Daughter #3, she mentioned fog.  She and Grand #1 were driving home to Appleton from picking up the oxygen concentrator for my use, and they were driving in fog.  Fog immediately descended on us driving east on I-80 about 400 miles away from where they were driving!  Power of suggestion?

We drove in fog the rest of the way to Avoca, Iowa.  This is the town that I fell in love with last May where we stayed in our travels to see my youngest Grand graduate from high school.  We had expected that we would see those beautiful houses decked out in Christmas paraphernalia.  We were disappointed that few of the houses had outside decorations.  The one main city street had holiday decorations, but the side streets had nothing.

Next  morning, we were met with the fog of  the day.  All day.  The fog covered the area making driving more difficult.  Some drivers followed the general rules that make a lot of sense to drive with lights on.  Other drivers (in my opinion, idiots) had no lights showing, causing other drivers to get almost upon them before realizing that a car was in front of them and had to be avoided.

Descending into the Mississippi River valley, we saw that the beautiful road cuts were soaked with the fog and were much darker in appearance – still beautiful, but dark.  We safely arrived at Daughter #1’s house in late afternoon.  After greetings, we carried in those things we needed for the evening, waiting until tomorrow to bring in the rest.

You know how you make lists of things you need to bring when traveling?  Well, I do.  And, you are sure that you have everything on your list in your luggage?  Or, in our case, traveling in a car, it is in a car?  Well, I sleep every night with a CPAP machine so it was one of the first things to go into the house. (I had chosen not to use the CPAP the night we were at the motel.)  The CPAP machine has six parts:  the main box; the water reservoir that fits into the main box; the hose and mask with a section where the oxygen hose from the concentrator attaches; and the two part electric cord (one section fits from the transformer to the main box and the other goes from the electric wall outlet to the transformer).  The electric cords attach at the transformer where the electric power is reduced so the CPAP machine can handle it.  Six parts.  The travel case for the CPAP has a section for each of the parts.  A large section for the box with the water container.  A middle-size, smaller section for the hose and mask.  An even smaller section for the electric cords.

I was assembling the CPAP machine and all of its parts, but found one part missing.  The section of electric cord that goes from the wall to the transformer.  Missing!  I closed my eyes and could see myself putting all of the parts into the travel case.  Where on earth could the missing piece be?

The first night at Daughter #1’s house, I slept without the CPAP machine.  And, without the addition of two liters of oxygen that pumps throught the machine (as ordered by the sleep test folks).  The next day, I searched the car.  No electric cord.  I called sister Clara.  She suggested that to get the oxygen, just use the cannula provided with the oxygen concentrator.  There was no cannula.

We tested every two-piece electric cord in the house.  Nothing fit the two-prong opening in the transformer.  I knew my cord had to have been packed.  Just in case, Daughter #1 called my neighbor Rita asking her to go into my bedroom to see if it was perhaps lying on the bed.  Or, had it fallen under the bed.  Or was it somewhere else in the room.  She politely agreed but found no cord. I was, however, determined to find that missing cord.

I posited that if it was not in any of those places previously searched, it had to be somewhere in my luggage or in the boxes that had been brought from home!  And, so, I began to take apart every piece of luggage and every box and every bag that had been brought from home.  I started with the green suitcase, removing every item from every pocket until nothing was left inside of it.  This suitcase has no external pockets.  No electric cord to be found.

Next, it was on to the boxes.  Because I have a lot of stuff to do, I bring lots of stuff in boxes to do when I have nothing scheduled.  I have books to read, poems to write, papers to sort, things to do – all of which involve things in the boxes that I bring.  There was no electric cord in the boxes – either of them.

I have this new computer but I use the old carrying case for its travel.  I always take the laptop computer with me when I travel.  I have BLOGs to write, children’s stories to write, e-mails to answer and write, as well as questions to ask the web.  The carrying case has two outside pockets.  Maybe, I put the missing electric cord into one of them.  Nope!

I looked under the couch where I sleep in the coldest room in the house – I love sleeping cold and sleep under an electric blanket so I’m never really cold.  I looked in the bedding.  I looked everywhere – I thought.  Then, I looked one more time in the carrying case for the CPAP machine.  It was not in the large space, the middle-sized space, or the small space.  It just wasn’t there.  And, then, I noticed the one inside pouch that could only hold something flat.  Something like a coiled electric cord.  And, there it was.  The lost was found!  Thanks be to God!  And, I was able to sleep that night with the CPAP machine with two liters of oxygen feeding into it.

In the middle of the night, the oxygen concentrator started screaming with a loud screaming whistle sound.  It woke me from a sound sleep.  Something had to be wrong with the oxygen concentrator; I shut it off.  But, that’s another story for another time.

Be Safe and Be Well
The Cranky Crone
Thoughtful comments are appreciated.